CD1: Tracks 35-38
Phyllis:
Interview er:
Phyllis:
Interview er:
T rack 38
Guide:
Well, fam ous people are everywhere and although we know nearly a ll there is to know about these
people - th e ir lives are splashed alt over magazines and television - they’ve retained th e ir m ystery.
The public are always eager to find out more about them and this fuels the paparazzi to photograph
them . It’s true th a t there are m ore celebrities around than ever before, but the num ber of really
im p orta nt fam ous people probably hasn’t changed greatly. This is because people became fam ous
fo r only a sh ort tim e . Andy W arhol once fam ously said, 'In the future, everyone w ill be fam ous fo r
fifteen m inutes’, and I th in k th e re ’s some tru th in that. One day a person is fam ous and the next they
are fo rg o tte n . Take, fo r example, contestants on reality television shows. A fte r maybe six
m onths we
never see them again. This also highlights a nother characteristic of fame: in the past people became
fam ous because of som ething they had done, o r because of th e ir talent. Nowadays these things a ren't
necessary. I personally th in k th is is a great pity.
Is fam e p a rtic u la rly beneficial now?
W e ll let's look at the w inn ers and losers w hen it com es to fame. Many people th in k th a t ce le brities
are the losers in th is new media w o rld , but th a t is n 't necessarily the case. Take, fo r exam ple, actors
and actresses. They often com plain about a lack of privacy, but privacy is possible. There are many
ce le brities who a re n 't constantly in the papers.
Much as they com plain, they chase the p ub licity and
then blam e it on the media. In fact, the paparazzi, who photograph the rich and fam ous, are often
seen as fig ures of hate fo r this. They come off much w orse in the end, because they are so disliked
by the public and c e le b ritie s . But in reality, they are m aking the ce le b ritie s and th e ir m anagers
even richer. In fact, because of the
c u lt of fam e nowadays, we can see media executives m aking
even m ore m oney and ce le b ritie s signing m u lti-m illio n pound deals. And who pays fo r this? Well,
a ll of us. Cinema and concert tic k e t prices have risen and DVDs cost m ore than ever. M erchandising
m akes a fo rtun e fo r the fam ous these days. And although we are paying fo r it, the rew ards go to only
a s m a ll elite - the big players, the sta rs and the executives, but they m iss a lot of the creative talent
in
the industry, like the people who w rite the screenplays. They are s till on the same salary they
w ere on ten years ago. Executives ce rta inly have a d iffic u lt job m anaging th e ir clients, but they get
rewarded w e ll fo r doing so. I fo r one th in k these rew ards should be m ore fa irly spread.
How could th is be done? Are you ...?
Thank you fo r coming along to the C ultu ra l Sydney talk. I'm going to sta rt by te llin g you about the
Yellow Plaque scheme, which has been running in Sydney fo r over forty years and has been incredibly
successful. When you are w alking around the city, you’ll see some buildings w ith a s m a ll round yellow
plaque on them .
If you take a closer look, y o u 'll see the name and details of a fam ous person who
lived in that very place. We have, at present, 130 plaques up in the city. The schem e has been great
fo r to urism , but it was really started to raise awareness of the rich history of Sydney, both locally
and nationally, and we th in k we've managed to do th is . We also wanted to make people aware of the
impressive lis t of im p orta nt people who
have lived in this city, and we've certainly achieved th a t. But
th a t’s not all. Although not part of o ur o rig in a l aims, the schem e has also helped preserve some of
the o ld e r and m ore im p orta nt buildings in Sydney because people now know th at these buildings are a
link to o ur past; some of the buildings are actually over 180 years old, which, fo r Australia, is ancient!
We actually th in k th at this is w here the schem e has achieved the m ost success: in raising the profile of
our rich history. Of course, it has helped to urism , but not only that, locals also w a lk around looking at
the plaques. It has been really w on de rful in highlighting o ur past. Some people are
quite surprised to
see who has lived here; take Errol Flynn fo r example. He was m arried in Sydney.
We are planning on putting m ore plaques up and a com m on question is how can people nom inate
a fig ure to be put on a plaque. It’s quite a sim ple process. A pplications can be downloaded fro m o ur
w ebsite. If you w ant to nom inate som eone fo r a plague you just need the person's name, w here they
lived and you need three sign atures to approve v o u r a p p lica tio n . Our panel then checks th a t a ll the
data you've su bm itted is c o rre c t and hopefully, w ith in a year a new plaque w ill be erected. But you
can’t nom inate ju s t anyone! A plaque can only be given to a person who is fam ous and has achieved
som ething
out of the ordinary, like an im p o rta n t p oliticia n or w o rld -re c o rd breaking sportsm an,
fo r exam ple. We aim to have fifty new plaques up w ith in the next three years, and we have plenty of
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: 
